Government shuts down dark web marketplace for personal data

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Dark web marketplace shutdown overview:

• Who: The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a major dark web marketplace, known as SSNDOB, has been taken down.
• Why: The SSNDOB dark web domains reportedly posed a massive data privacy threat.
• Where: The takedown was a joint data security effort between the FBI, IRS and local police in Cyprus and Latvia, according to the DOJ.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced a dark web marketplace selling the personal data of 24 million people has been shut down in an effort to improve data security and privacy.

On June 7, the DOJ announced the dark web marketplace takedown in a press release. The agency says the takedown was a joint data security effort between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and local police in Cyprus and Latvia. 

The agencies reportedly seized four domains that hosted SSNDOB, a marketplace used by cybercriminals on the dark web, “effectively ceasing the website’s operation,” the DOJ release said. The domains, which were not indexed on the internet, had allowed cybercriminals to purchase personal data such as names, birthdates and Social Security numbers that could be used to commit fraud and identity theft.

The DOJ did not identify any individuals who may have set up or operated the dark web marketplace.

The SSNDOB marketplace, which was active for at least nine years, generated more than $19 million in cryptocurrency sales, the DOJ says.

“Identity theft can have a devastating impact on a victim’s long-term emotional and financial health,” Darrell Waldon, special agent in charge at the IRS-CI Washington, D.C., field office, says in the press release. “Taking down the SSNDOB website disrupted ID theft criminals and helped millions of Americans whose personal information was compromised.”

Global data security efforts seek to protect data privacy, take down cybercriminals

The dark web takedown is just one of the latest data security efforts by law enforcement agencies around the world, according to the press release.

Earlier this year, authorities in the United States and Germany announced a takedown of Hydra Market, a dark web marketplace that had been used for money laundering and drug sales.

And in October 2021, U.S. and European law enforcement worked together to take down a dark web opioid trafficking ring. Investigators reportedly seized 500 pounds of illegal drugs and nearly $32 million. Close to 150 alleged members of the crime ring were arrested.

Additionally, three members of Congress are reportedly working on a bipartisan data privacy bill called the American Data Privacy and Protection Act. If the bill is passed, it would create a federal standard for companies’ storage, use and sharing of consumers’ private data.

Do you think the federal government is doing enough to protect Americans’ data privacy? Join the discussion in the comments below.

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